About the Radius Project

Radius is about what happens when we explore the edges, paths, and landmarks of a city, and meet our neighbors. We’re finding unexpected stories in Hartford, Connecticut close to spots you might already know.

Hartford is often simplified, characterized broadly as a state capital with incredible history that’s also riddled with violence. It’s dying, or coming to life, depending on where you look. You might hear people say that it’s both beautifully diverse and also shockingly segregated.

Some see Hartford as a tiny town in the shadow of Boston and New York. Others see it as the big regional city surrounded by quaint New England towns.

Come along with us as we map Hartford in a new way — through stories that are all about being in a particular place, shaping what we imagine it to be.

Kevin Lynch identified five elements of a city, or ways we create mental maps as we grow to understand a place. From The Image of the City, 1960.

In his 1960s book The Image of the City, urbanist Kevin Lynch described ways we create a mental map of a place where we live or work. He came up with five of these. A recognizable landmark is one. A pathway is another — like a well-known road. An edge is an important boundary that we keep in mind, like a city line or a highway overpass. Lynch also wrote about nodes and districts — in other words, key intersections, and known parts of town.

Each episode of Radius looks at a landmark that’s more well-known, and explores the half-mile radius around it, searching for perspective on Hartford — its beauties, its issues, and most importantly its people.